<p>I recently received my IB predicted score, and I got a 40 (without extra points, so out of 42). My predictions are:</p>
<p>History HL-7
Psychology HL- 7
Spanish B HL- 7
Biology SL- 7
English Literature SL- 7
Math Standard SL- 5</p>
<p>I am right on the line between a 5 and a 6 in math; in fact, one or two students in my class who've gotten the exact same grades as I have on every test were predicted a 6. I put a lot of effort in, and going back on all my previous assessments, I can now do most of the problems I missed before. I've talked to my math teacher about it, but he conveniently ignored the fact that he predicted several people who are at the same level as me higher, and went on to imply that he doesn't want to overpredict me since he doesn't think I'll be able to achieve my 7 predictions in all my other subjects (I know right, nice guy, isn't he). I asked him whether I could work harder over summer and then prove to him I've improved to a strong 6 at the start of next term, before these predictions are finalized. However, all he said was that I shouldn't count on him doing that and I should just "do my best" on the actual exam next year (which is quite useless, as universities admit you based on predictions). I'm not even going to focus of how people with the same grades as me got higher predictions because I feel like that's not really going to help my case, but clearly he doesn't think I'll be able to get a 6 in the final exam (when I know that I'll work hard enough and end up doing better than those who got a 6 prediction already- special circumstances this year prevented me from doing extra work and catching up on material I didn't understand, but I am capable of doing well in this course with enough practice). He's being completely unreasonable but in the end, he's the teacher and I don't have enough concrete proof of how he's being unfair and obviously people are going to listen to what he says.</p>
<p>However, I don't want to spend my whole summer working on math like crazy without confirmation that if I improve enough, my prediction will be raised. I would just be stressing out over it unnecessarily, when clearly he isn't even willing to give me a chance. The only way I could change Math SL teacher would be by moving up a set, but a 5 isn't a high enough grade for me to do that. So at this point, I am considering simply dropping to math studies, but I don't know if I should? </p>
<p>I know it's usually looked down upon, and I intend to apply to the Ivy League + similar top universities so I'm scared it would hurt my chances. But even though I'll be applying as an undecided major, it will be pretty clear from my application that I'll be going in a humanities-based direction and that I won't need calculus in my future classes. In fact, math studies covers topics such as statistics which are arguably more useful for me, since I'm thinking of going into politics or, in any case, something humanities-related. If I dropped to math studies I know I could get a 7, which means my score would (hopefully) be a 45. On the other hand, I know that I'll be required to take science classes in most universities, and even though I won't necessarily need calculus to keep up, admissions officers like to see that as part of applicants' high school curriculum. I'm not really sure which is better- a 5 in math sl or a 7 in math studies?</p>
<p>Any thoughts or advice on what I could do would be much appreciated :)</p>